Writing for the Alabama Supreme Court on an issue of first impression, Justice See held in Flying J Fish Farm et al. v. Peoples Bank of Greensboro, No. 1061833 (Ala. Oct. 24, 2008), that a lender does not owe a no duty to its borrower to make certain that the project in which the borrower invests is sufficiently feasible to allow repayment of the loan. Lenders are not insurers of borrowers’ business decisions. The issue was brought to the Court through a question that the trial court certified for permissive appeal from an order in which the trial court denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

According to this article in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Eleventh Circuit Judge R. Lanier Anderson, III will take Senior Status at the end of January. So, the next President will have a vacancy on the Eleveth Circuit bench to fill.

In Prescott v. Prescott, [Ms. 2070638] (Ala. Civ. App. Oct. 10, 2008), the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment on a child custody modification issue. The mother appeal, but, the record did not contain a transcript, a statement of the evidence under Ala. R. App. P. 10(d), or an agreed statement of the case under Ala. R. App. P. 10(e). "In the absence of a transcript of the evidence or an authorized substitute therfor, it is conclusively presumed that the trial court’s judgment is supported by the evidence." Slip Op. pp. 4-5. Thus, the judgment was presumed to be supported by the evidence and was affirmed.

In Prescott v. Prescott, [Ms. 2070638] (Ala. Civ. App. Oct. 10, 2008), the Court of Civil Appeals refused to consider an argument that the trial court used an improper standard on a child custody determination. The court refused to consider the argument because it was not raised in the trial court. The court found that the error, if it occurred, was not in the trial but in the order itself. Thus, "the mother had the opportunity to bring this issue to the trial court’s attention by filing a postjudgment motion but failed to do so. Because the mother failed to file a postjudgment motion and raises this argument for the first time on appealm we cannot consider this argument." Slip Op. p. 3.